The Impact of the SFP System on Italian Farmland Prices and Tenure Contracts. Factor Markets Working Document No. 65, August 2013

EDITED VERSION TO BE PUBLISHED SOON. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the estimation of the potential effects of the CAP reform on propensity to transaction, particularly comparing the effect of different new instruments/policy settings with the current policy (CAP health check) used as a baseline. The work is focused on three of new policy instruments within the post 2013 CAP reform proposal: regionalization, greening and capping. The first and second are analysed in more detail. The analysis will be based on a survey of farmers in the Province of Bologna, Emilia Romagna, Italy. The questionnaire focuses on mechanism of access to land and related incentives towards different land use/economic behaviour. The survey includes information about respondent characteristics (farm, farmer, household and payments received) and stated intention about potential changes in land operated under alternative agricultural policy scenarios (particularly the post-2013 reform proposals)

What Do we Know about Entering Innovation Network by SMEs ?

The importance of networking as a way to enhance innovation has been pointed out in many scientific papers, in particular for SMEs. A great number of scientific studies clearly establish the significant role of SMEs in economic growth, promoting flexibility and innovation in an economy. The process of successfully engage in a network represents a key for enhancing competitiveness. In order to improve effectiveness of network is pivotal the achievement of a better understanding of SME behavior.The presented work aims to identify factors that characterize food SMEs entering in innovation networks by integrating findings from the literature review with a survey of food SMEs

Innovation in European food SMEs: determinants and links between types

The food sector has traditionally been considered one with the lowest research and development expenditure to value added ratio. In recent decades, however, the business environment has become more demanding in terms of technological inputs for reasons related to food safety, quality and also the globalisation of the food market. This provides a strong incentive to innovate, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) seeking to remain in business.Most businesses operating in the food sector belong to the SME category which, based on the literature, tends to have a low level of research capacity.This study seeks to identify determinants of the types of innovation adopted and associations between them by analysing a sample of European food SMEs. For this purpose a non-parametric analysis, namely the classification tree technique, is carried out. The main finding is that due to the technological factors inherent in the food industry, a tight linkage exists between product, process and market innovation. Moreover, the study shows that collaboration between competitors encourages SMEs to engage in market, process and business model innovation. Conversely, synergy with suppliers and customers supports product innovation

The Impact of the SFP System on Italian Farmland Prices and Tenure Contracts

The connection between policy and other context variables and land markets is at the core of the policy debate, including the present reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. Factor markets are a central issue in analyses of farm development and of agricultural sector vitality. Among the different production factors, land is one of the most studied. The land market is an imperfect market, because of its low substitutability, poor transparency and high transaction costs. It is characterised by a low number of transactions and a local dimension, and is also influenced by economic, policy and institutional frameworks. In particular, the agricultural economics literature has highlighted the effects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on factor markets (Floyd, 1965; Parsch et al., 1998; Latruffe and Le Mouel, 2006; Ciaian and Swinnen, 2006; Bartolini et al., 2011) and specifically studied the way in which the CAP reforms have changed these effects over time. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the estimation of the potential effects of the CAP reform on propensity to transaction, particularly comparing the effect of different new instruments/policy settings with the current policy (CAP health check) used as a baseline. The work is focused on three of new policy instruments within the post 2013 CAP reform proposal: regionalization, greening and capping. The first and second are analysed in more detail. The analysis will be based on a survey of farmers in the Province of Bologna, Emilia Romagna, Italy. The questionnaire focuses on mechanism of access to land and related incentives towards different land use/economic behaviour. The survey includes information about respondent characteristics (farm, farmer, household and payments received) and stated intention about potential changes in land operated under alternative agricultural policy scenarios (particularly the post-2013 reform proposals

Implementazione in ROS 2 di un sistema di prevenzione delle collisioni per punti materiali

La prevenzione delle collisioni assume un ruolo fondamentale nella robotica multi-agente, dove la gestione di tale problematica è diventata sempre più importante con il crescere dell'interesse nelle applicazioni della robotica collaborativa. Poichè prevede la cooperazione di diversi agenti, per portare a termine compiti anche complessi, è necessario utilizzare una schema di prevenzione delle collisioni che protegga da possibili danni e perdite. A tal fine, nell'elaborato viene presentata l'implementazione di uno schema di prevenzione delle collisioni per punti materiali in ROS 2. In particolare, viene implementato un algoritmo che produce nuovi ingressi, più vicini possibile a quelli che sarebbero forniti in assenza di ostacoli, tali da non far scontrare i singoli punti e da non cambiarne totalmente le traiettorie iniziali. Partendo da nozioni teoriche, lo schema di prevenzione sviluppato si basa su una funzione di barriera e sui relativi vincoli che i punti materiali devono rispettare per garantire l'assenza di collisioni. L'efficacia dello schema implementato è verificato tramite lo strumento di visualizzazione grafica offerto da ROS, Rviz

The assessment of change in rural landscape and the analysis of the driving forces. Proposal of a spatial model for the rural built environment

The presented study carried out an analysis on rural landscape changes. In particular the study focuses on the understanding of driving forces acting on the rural built environment using a statistical spatial model implemented through GIS techniques. It is well known that the study of landscape changes is essential for a conscious decision making in land planning. From a bibliography review results a general lack of studies dealing with the modeling of rural built environment and hence a theoretical modelling approach for such purpose is needed. The advancement in technology and modernity in building construction and agriculture have gradually changed the rural built environment. In addition, the phenomenon of urbanization of a determined the construction of new volumes that occurred beside abandoned or derelict rural buildings. Consequently there are two types of transformation dynamics affecting mainly the rural built environment that can be observed: the conversion of rural buildings and the increasing of building numbers. It is the specific aim of the presented study to propose a methodology for the development of a spatial model that allows the identification of driving forces that acted on the behaviours of the building allocation. In fact one of the most concerning dynamic nowadays is related to an irrational expansion of buildings sprawl across landscape. The proposed methodology is composed by some conceptual steps that cover different aspects related to the development of a spatial model: the selection of a response variable that better describe the phenomenon under study, the identification of possible driving forces, the sampling methodology concerning the collection of data, the most suitable algorithm to be adopted in relation to statistical theory and method used, the calibration process and evaluation of the model. A different combination of factors in various parts of the territory generated favourable or less favourable conditions for the building allocation and the existence of buildings represents the evidence of such optimum. Conversely the absence of buildings expresses a combination of agents which is not suitable for building allocation. Presence or absence of buildings can be adopted as indicators of such driving conditions, since they represent the expression of the action of driving forces in the land suitability sorting process. The existence of correlation between site selection and hypothetical driving forces, evaluated by means of modeling techniques, provides an evidence of which driving forces are involved in the allocation dynamic and an insight on their level of influence into the process. GIS software by means of spatial analysis tools allows to associate the concept of presence and absence with point futures generating a point process. Presence or absence of buildings at some site locations represent the expression of these driving factors interaction. In case of presences, points represent locations of real existing buildings, conversely absences represent locations were buildings are not existent and so they are generated by a stochastic mechanism. Possible driving forces are selected and the existence of a causal relationship with building allocations is assessed through a spatial model. The adoption of empirical statistical models provides a mechanism for the explanatory variable analysis and for the identification of key driving variables behind the site selection process for new building allocation. The model developed by following the methodology is applied to a case study to test the validity of the methodology. In particular the study area for the testing of the methodology is represented by the New District of Imola characterized by a prevailing agricultural production vocation and were transformation dynamic intensively occurred. The development of the model involved the identification of predictive variables (related to geomorphologic, socio-economic, structural and infrastructural systems of landscape) capable of representing the driving forces responsible for landscape changes.. The calibration of the model is carried out referring to spatial data regarding the periurban and rural area of the study area within the 1975-2005 time period by means of Generalised linear model. The resulting output from the model fit is continuous grid surface where cells assume values ranged from 0 to 1 of probability of building occurrences along the rural and periurban area of the study area. Hence the response variable assesses the changes in the rural built environment occurred in such time interval and is correlated to the selected explanatory variables by means of a generalized linear model using logistic regression. Comparing the probability map obtained from the model to the actual rural building distribution in 2005, the interpretation capability of the model can be evaluated. The proposed model can be also applied to the interpretation of trends which occurred in other study areas, and also referring to different time intervals, depending on the availability of data. The use of suitable data in terms of time, information, and spatial resolution and the costs related to data acquisition, pre-processing, and survey are among the most critical aspects of model implementation. Future in-depth studies can focus on using the proposed model to predict short/medium-range future scenarios for the rural built environment distribution in the study area. In order to predict future scenarios it is necessary to assume that the driving forces do not change and that their levels of influence within the model are not far from those assessed for the time interval used for the calibration

Il mercato dei biopesticidi: stato dell’arte e prospettive di studio

Il termine Biopesticida nasce dalla contrazione di biological based control agent (agenti di lotta biologica) e nella sua definizione più ampia comprende tutti gli organismi viventi, o prodotti naturali derivati da tali organismi, in grado di contenere patogeni vegetali (Thakore, 2006; Kiewnick, 2007).Il mercato dei biopesticidi è in continua crescita nell'ultimo decennio (Figura 1); nel frattempo, nonostante il fatturato si mantenga comunque alto, si nota un costante calo delle vendite dei prodotti agrochimici. La motivazione di questa opposta tendenza risiede nei problemi di tossicità ambientale e sviluppo di resistenze da parte degli organismi patogeni a seguito dell'utilizzo persistente dei prodotti di sintesi. Tuttavia, nonostante la richiesta di biopesticidi sia crescente, ci sono ancora diversi aspetti che ostacolano una loro ampia diffusione sul mercato. In particolare, gli operatori del settore riscontrano delle problematiche legate alla loro efficacia e persistenza nell’ambiente. Le imprese produttrici invece evidenziano le loro difficoltà nell’investire verso la produzione di prodotti essenzialmente di nicchia. Paradossalmente, queste limitazioni rappresentano anche le caratteristiche di pregio dei biopesticidi che consentono il loro utilizzo con bassa tossicità verso l’ambiente e gli organismi utili grazie alla veloce biodegradabilità e selettività

Innovation in European food SMEs: determinants and links between types

The food sector has traditionally been considered one with the lowest research and development expenditure to value added ratio. In recent decades, however, the business environment has become more demanding in terms of technological inputs for reasons related to food safety, quality and also the globalisation of the food market. This provides a strong incentive to innovate, especially for small and mediumsized enterprises (SME) seeking to remain in business. Most businesses operating in the food sector belong to the SME category which, based on the literature, tends to have a low level of research capacity. This study seeks to identify determinants of the types of innovation adopted and associations between them by analysing a sample of European food SMEs. For this purpose a non-parametric analysis, namely the classification tree technique, is carried out. The main finding is that due to the technological factors inherent in the food industry, a tight linkage exists between product, process and market innovation. Moreover, the study shows that collaboration between competitors encourages SMEs to engage in market, process and business model innovation. Conversely, synergy with suppliers and customers supports product innovation

“What Do we Know about Entering Innovation Network by SMEs ?”

The importance of networking as a way to enhance innovation has been pointed out in many scientific papers, in particular for SMEs. A great number of scientific studies clearly establish the significant role of SMEs in economic growth, promoting flexibility and innovation in an economy. The process of successfully engage in a network represents a key for enhancing competitiveness. In order to improve effectiveness of network is pivotal the achievement of a better understanding of SME behavior. The presented work aims to identify factors that characterize food SMEs entering in innovation networks by integrating findings from the literature review with a survey of food SMEs

Innovation in European food SMEs: determinants and links between types

The food sector has traditionally been considered one with the lowest research and development expenditure to value added ratio. In recent decades, however, the business environment has become more demanding in terms of technological inputs for reasons related to food safety, quality and also the globalisation of the food market. This provides a strong incentive to innovate, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) seeking to remain in business. Most businesses operating in the food sector belong to the SME category which, based on the literature, tends to have a low level of research capacity. This study seeks to identify determinants of the types of innovation adopted and associations between them by analysing a sample of European food SMEs. For this purpose a non-parametric analysis, namely the classification tree technique, is carried out. The main finding is that due to the technological factors inherent in the food industry, a tight linkage exists between product, process and market innovation. Moreover, the study shows that collaboration between competitors encourages SMEs to engage in market, process and business model innovation. Conversely, synergy with suppliers and customers supports product innovation